Garment Hanger

ABSTRACT

A garment hanger comprising: a generally triangular shaped body, the generally triangular shaped body comprising: a base; a first leg attached to the base; a second leg attached to the base and the first leg; a hook attached to the first leg and second leg; and where the garment hanger is made out of a biodegradable material selected from the group consisting of Natureworks PLA, biodegradable plastic, corn based plastic, paper, cardboard, wood or wood derivative.

CROSS-REFERENCES

This patent application claims the benefit of provisional patentapplication Ser. No. 60/814,509, by Anthony J. LaBella, entitled“Biodegradeable disposable clothing hangar”, filed on Jun. 19, 2006, theentire contents of which are fully incorporated by reference herein.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates generally to a garment hanger, and morespecifically to a garment hanger that is biodegradable and disposable.

BACKGROUND

Garment or clothing hangers are purposely designed for a stiffconstruction and durability. Their use requires that they are generallymade from wire and in some variations these wire hangars are wrappedwith cloth, foam rubber or cardboard to shape the garment hangar to theclothing. Often the same characteristics of the wire frame make thisitem difficult to dispose of properly. These items are difficult to fitinto conventional garbage bags due to the wire hook and are not eligiblefor domestic recycling. They are either returned to the dry cleaner orare thrown away to contaminate land-fills.

Therefore there is a need for a garment hanger that overcomes the abovelisted and other disadvantages.

SUMMARY

The disclosed invention relates to a garment hanger comprising: agenerally triangular shaped body, the generally triangular shaped bodycomprising: a base; a first leg attached to the base; a second legattached to the base and the first leg; a hook attached to the first legand second leg; and where the garment hanger is made out of abiodegradable material selected from the group consisting of NatureworksPLA, biodegradable plastic, corn based plastic, paper, cardboard, woodor wood derivative.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure will be better understood by those skilled in thepertinent art by referencing the accompanying drawings, where likeelements are numbered alike in the several figures, in which:

FIG. 1 is a top view of one embodiment of the disclosed hanger;

FIG. 2 is a top view of another embodiment of the disclosed hanger; and

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of another embodiment of the disclosedhanger.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 shows a front view of one embodiment of the garment hanger 10.The hanger 10 comprises a hook 14, attached to a generally triangularshaped body 18. The generally triangular shaped body 18 comprises a base22, a first leg 26 and a second leg 30. The legs 26 and 30 may have acontoured shape configured to allow a shirt, blouse, and/or jacket tohang from the legs 26, 30. Each leg 26, 30 may have a shouldersupporting portion 34, and a neck hole protruding portion 38. The hook14 may have a notched or scored area 42. The notched or scored area 42allows a user to snap the hook 14 off the hanger 10, in order to moreeasily dispose of the hanger 10. The hanger 10 may have one or morecross members 46 to provide support to the hanger 10, when the hanger isused to hang a garment, such as a coat or a jacket. The base 22 isconfigured to allow one to hang pants, scarves, etc. from the hanger 10.

FIG. 2 shows another embodiment of the disclosed garment hanger 10. Inthis embodiment, the hanger 10 does not have a contoured neck holeprotruding portion 38 on the first leg 26 and second leg 30. Inaddition, this hanger does not have the one or more cross members 46.

In one embodiment, the hangers disclosed in FIGS. 1 and 2 may have arounded cross-sectional shape, that is known in the prior art. Inanother embodiment, however, the cross-sectional shape of the hangers isshown in FIG. 3. The cross-sectional shape has two flattened sides 50.These flattened sides 50 allow for easy stacking, and for usage inmechanical retrieval machines.

The disclosed hangers will be made out of a biodegradable material, suchas Natureworks PLA biodegradable plastic, corn based plastic, paper,cardboard, wood or wood derivative or other suitable material that willbe structurally rigid and allow easy disposal for the end user consumereither through conventional refuse disposal or local recyclingcollection. One promising material, is Natureworks polylactic acid(Natureworks PLA), supplied by NatureWorks LLC, 15305 MinnetonkaBoulevard, Minnetonka, Minn. 55345. The Natureworks PLA isbiodegradable, and is made from a renewable resource, corn. In addition,garment hangers made from Natureworks PLA may be used in compostingprocesses. One particular type of Natureworks PLA that is promising forthe disclosed hanger is the 3001D. Of course, one of ordinary skill inthe art will recognize that the disclosed hanger is not limited to beingmade out of the 3001d polymer, but can be made from any suitablebiodegradable and/or recyclable material.

The advantages of the disclosed hanger is that it is a very inexpensivehangar made out of a biodegradable and/or recyclable material that willallow its disposal in a manner that will allow consumers to more fullyincorporate a “green” lifestyle that is prevalent in the market place.This invention is particularly desirable in a commercial setting toattract consumers to a means of delivering clean garments that does notencumber either the immediate disposal process or the long-term disposalprocess by avoiding the effect of a steel or metal hangar.

It should be noted that the terms “first”, “second”, and “third”, andthe like may be used herein to modify elements performing similar and/oranalogous functions. These modifiers do not imply a spatial, sequential,or hierarchical order to the modified elements unless specificallystated.

While the disclosure has been described with reference to severalembodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art thatvarious changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted forelements thereof without departing from the scope of the disclosure. Inaddition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situationor material to the teachings of the disclosure without departing fromthe essential scope thereof. Therefore, it is intended that thedisclosure not be limited to the particular embodiments disclosed as thebest mode contemplated for carrying out this disclosure, but that thedisclosure will include all embodiments falling within the scope of theappended claims.

1. A garment hanger comprising: a generally triangular shaped body, thegenerally triangular shaped body comprising: a base; a first legattached to the base; a second leg attached to the base and the firstleg; a hook attached to the first leg and second leg; and wherein thegarment hanger is made out of a biodegradable material selected from thegroup consisting of Natureworks PLA, biodegradable plastic, corn basedplastic, paper, cardboard, wood or wood derivative.
 2. The garmenthanger of claim 1, further comprising: a notched area on the hook,configured to allow for the snapping off of the hook from the hanger. 3.The garment hanger of claim 1 further comprising: a first cross memberattached to the first leg and the second leg.
 4. The garment hanger ofclaim 3, further comprising: a second cross member attached to the firstcross member and the first leg; and a third cross member attached to thefirst cross member and the second leg.
 5. The garment hanger of claim 3,further comprising: a contoured shape on the first leg and the secondleg, the contoured shaped configured to provide a neck hole protrudingportion to the hanger, and a shoulder supporting portion to the hanger.6. The garment hanger of claim 1, wherein the cross-sectional shape ofthe hanger has a first flattened side and a second flattened side, theflattened sides allowing for stacking of a plurality of garment hangers.7. The garment hanger of claim 1, wherein the material that the hangeris made out of is Natureworks PLA Polymer 3001D.